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The entire U.S. intelligence community—17 agencies in all—has been penetrated by Chinese spies, says Nicholas Eftimiades, who recently retired as one of the U.S. government’s top experts on Chinese espionage.

Eftimiades, a former DIA senior intelligence officer and expert on Chinese espionage at the CIA and State Department for over three decades, paints a dire portrait of Beijing’s espionage onslaught—and other top experts told SpyTalk they generally agree. 

“I'd sleep at night if there were one or two,” Eftimiades said in a wide-ranging interview on the SpyTalk podcast, posted Thursday. “I would think that there are many upon many, and not only at CIA, but elsewhere in the government as well.”

He added, “I think if we're talking about [the] Justice [Department], the intelligence community, the 17 agencies including the DNI, I'd be stunned if there weren't dozens, absolutely stunned if there weren't dozens” of Chinese moles, Eftimiades said. DNI is short for the Office of the Director …